East Windsor man gets five years in sex offender treatment center

TRENTON — An East Windsor man was sentenced Thursday to five years at a state Adult Diagnostic and Treatment Center which offers therapy for sex offenders.

Edward Kline pleaded guilty in to third-degree endangering the welfare of a child on Sept. 20, 2012. The 33-year-old man’s county conviction stemmed from a federal undercover operation conducted in 2007, where Kline was arrested in Washington, D.C., after an online conversation with an alleged 13-year-old boy. Kline ended up being the target of a police and FBI sting operation and was arrested after attempting to set up a meeting with the decoy.

According to reports, in 2008 he was indicted by a grand jury in Mercer County for sexually abusing two township boys who were 11 and 13 at the time of the incidents. A search of Kline’s home in 2008 turned up several hundred images of child pornography and videos, according to authorities.

“He really is a good boy, who got caught up with the wrong crowd,” said Edward’s mother, Karen Kline. “We believe he suffers from Asperger’s syndrome but because the penal system doesn’t investigate we don’t know that for sure.”

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Mrs. Kline, an orthodox Jewish woman, sat in the courtroom late Thursday afternoon, holding hands with her younger son, waiting for the imprisoned Kline to make an appearance in front of Judge Thomas Brown. The mother told a story of sweet innocent and naďve son who got involved with aiding foster children and wanted to help kids who were less fortunate than he.

“He was seduced by the boy into masturbating in front of him,” said Mrs. Kline. “I believe this is entrapment because the cooperating witness would not come forth and instead turned my son in.”

Kline’s mother confirmed that her son is gay and that he has been working on rehabilitating his sexual desires towards young boys while behind bars at a federal prison. Kline was sentenced to nine years in a federal prison in 2008.

Kline’s five-year term at the rehabilitation center for sex offenders will run concurrent to his 2008 federal conviction.

“He really is a good boy, a nice kid but just got caught up,” said Mrs. Kline. “What he did was stupid, he was really really stupid.”